What will winner Al Gore do now?
newsblogs.chicagotribune.com
by William Neikirk at 6:30 a.m. CST
posted: February 26, 2007
Al Gore is such a tease. But is he serious?
That is the question being asked around town today after the former vice president's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award for best documentary Sunday night. It was essentially an Al Gore Power Point presentation, but everyone agreed it was pretty compelling.
When it came his turn to say something about the award, he said, "my fellow Americans," drawing a big laugh from the Hollywood crowd and many people in the U.S. who still refer to him as Mr. President.
Ohmigosh, he didn't appear stiff. Well, maybe a little. When the man responsible for making the film, Davis Guggenheim, put his arm around Gore and told the crowd "we were moved to action by this man," Gore said it was time to do something about global warming, that it was no longer a partisan issue.
So, Al, are you running? He played this possibility for all it was worth. Earlier in the evening, he came on the stage with actor Leonard DiCaprio, to announce that these Academy Awards had been truly made green for the first time. He called DiCaprio "Leo."
DiCaprio asked Gore when they came on stage if he had an announcement to make, which Gore ignored, but when the actor asked again, the former vice president pulled what appeared to be a speech out of his coat pocket.
At this point, the orchestra struck up the music which signals that it's time to get off the stage.
Gore's name continues to be mentioned in the presidential sweepstakes. He's given no indication he's running, and he is not out there raising money like crazy as are Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and a bunch of other candidates.
He appears to have gained some weight, which shouldn’t be held against him, but may indicate that he is not preparing himself for another grueling campaign. Perhaps he can sit back and wait for the other leading candidates to crash and burn so that he can slip in at the right minute.
In a front-page story on Saturday, the Washington Post said that Al Gore had now become a cool guy. In the past, he had tried to hard to be cool, and it was so uncool. A little time can change perspectives.
"No one has done more to turn up the heat on our need to cool down the planet than Al Gore," said the League of Conservation Voters. The song winning an Oscar also was sung in "An Inconvenient Truth.".
Now everyone has to say that Al Gore is a winner. Gore might say that it took two victories to get one. Will he try for a third? |
